You know, old folks are always talking about eating prunes, watching what they eat, and their last bowel movement (BM). What’s up with that? Maybe, we need to adopt that attitude in K-12 education?
One of my Dad’s favorite gross-me-out stories was explaining what the heck his Doctor meant when he shared about “diverticulitis.” For years, I thought this was just a tall tale yarn he’d spun up to make me eat my vegetables until I found out that, indeed, this was a valid medical condition. He explained it in this way (and I’ve “sanitized” it a bit for those faint of bowel):
“You get diverticulitis when food gets stuck in little pockets on the way out. The food and bacteria build up gas in those pockets and can cause some real bad toots.”
Anyways, for some strange reason, my brain made a connection between old curriculum and approaches that have gotten stuck in many a K-12 education system. Instead of diverticulitis, it’s curriculitis. Stay tuned for 3 tips on how to avoid curriculitis.
This morning, I sent this note out to my colleagues on TEC-SIG in Texas:
This is a brainstorming post. A few colleagues have suggested to me that the best approach for teaching technology literacy is through a content area (uh, duh, right? ) but the primary obstacle to this is Curriculum & Instruction departments caught up in test-prep and high stakes accountability (“curriculitis”). I’m sure you know what I’m referring to.
;->
Ok, so my question is, are any of you teaching technology literacy (TA:TEKS) through Social Studies? Are you blending in the TA:TEKS deliberately (you know, checking off the list what you’re addressing with kids) or using tech when you think appropriate?
Here’s what I’m proposing for development and would love to have ANYTHING you have on this idea, even if it’s why a similar move failed/succeeded in your district or situation. Some of these ideas may fall through but I’m just throwing them out there for discussion.
- I want to integrate technology into social studies course so that every 8th grader will take the course, and also be prepared for TA:TEKS Technology Literacy Assessment now mandated by 8th grade.
- I have to do this with minimal technology in the classroom since we’re hardware-poor.
- I want an online course–in Moodle, of course–that every social studies teacher can use with their students.
- Online assessments in the virtual course proposed would be used to satisfy NCLB Technology Literacy Assessment.
Ideas? Copies of failed or successful proposals/stories to upper administration? Please share.
Oh, and if you’re wondering how to avoid curriculitis, it’s pretty straightforward:
You may be able to prevent curriculitis if you:
- Imbibe lots of RSS content,
- Google research regularly, and
- Consume a high research diet. A high-research diet includes blogs, open access journals, and action research.
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Hi Miguel: I taught a TA: TEKS course to 8th graders for the past 10 years and used core curriculum topics as my foundation. I worked mainly with our Social Studies and ELA teachers to make this happen. Many times before the core teacher introduced a topic in their class, we would have students discover their own info on the topic in my class. This data would then be used to create products that covered the 126.12 TEKS. We learned about graphic files/storage issues while drawing computerized maps of the Battles of the Revolutionary War, created spreadsheets containing American Author info, made web pages over Presidents….the list goes on and on. And while students did not have access to computers in their core classes, they did in mine. Another important piece was students had email accounts while in my class and used it to communicate and share info with each other and their core teachers. Our Social Studies/English scores blossomed. Students were engaged and took ownership of their work. We teachers feel like it was in part due to the use of technology and also the infusion of the topic in 3 different classes at one time… whatever the case…it worked.I know your situation is not quit the same and this did not cover all your desires but honestly think that what you are trying to do is a great way for our students to learn. Keep up the good work!
Hi Miguel: I taught a TA: TEKS course to 8th graders for the past 10 years and used core curriculum topics as my foundation. I worked mainly with our Social Studies and ELA teachers to make this happen. Many times before the core teacher introduced a topic in their class, we would have students discover their own info on the topic in my class. This data would then be used to create products that covered the 126.12 TEKS. We learned about graphic files/storage issues while drawing computerized maps of the Battles of the Revolutionary War, created spreadsheets containing American Author info, made web pages over Presidents….the list goes on and on. And while students did not have access to computers in their core classes, they did in mine. Another important piece was students had email accounts while in my class and used it to communicate and share info with each other and their core teachers. Our Social Studies/English scores blossomed. Students were engaged and took ownership of their work. We teachers feel like it was in part due to the use of technology and also the infusion of the topic in 3 different classes at one time… whatever the case…it worked.I know your situation is not quit the same and this did not cover all your desires but honestly think that what you are trying to do is a great way for our students to learn. Keep up the good work!